The importance of a presence and a voice
by C. Lacombe
Farmers, are you ready to internalize a grisly truth? There aren’t enough people still farming for you to be quiet and keep your head down anymore. Surely by now everyone has heard that only two percent of the Canadian population farm. The number is the same for the United States.
It’s why my social media feeds sometimes make my eyes pop and my stomach turn. I don’t farm or come from a farm family. I grew up in a big city and my social circle does not include farmers. It makes me an agvocate even with the little I know of agriculture because it’s volumes more than most of my social media connections.
Social media algorithms get a lot of press, but it’s always been possible to close yourself into an echo chamber just by living your life. If you don’t make an effort to get out there and hear other voices, you will not know half of what’s going on and possibly coming at you.
Attend events
Obviously, our Farming Smarter events are a must, but also look for opportunities to be in the room with people that aren’t clearly tied to agriculture. Farming Smarter staff have attended or spoken at events in Lethbridge such as the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA), Rotary breakfast meetings, anywhere an MLA speaks, conferences in other provinces and executive director Ken Coles recently spoke to the Bow River Basin Council in Calgary. ?
Go often enough that you develop the courage and will to stand up and ask questions or make statements. Grit your teeth and go shake hands with the Minister of Agriculture or MLA or MP in the room. Whatever decision maker you can get close to at any event, give them something to chew on about agriculture. Otherwise, these people make decisions in a vacuum and those decisions get in your way on the farm.
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Sit on boards and committees
Become a decision maker! Sit on Farming Smarter’s Board of Directors and decide what research gets done in southern Alberta. Sit on your local Ag Service Board. Volunteer for a commission board. None of the people currently sitting on any of these boards are smarter than you. They are just willing to get out there and interact, listen and learn from peers. Maybe when you start you will feel intimidated by the members that have history on boards, but you’ll catch up in no time. You will hear about possible changes coming at your farm before they become fact. You will have opportunity to shape policy or by-laws just by stating your opinion during the process. New policies, by-laws and laws can take years to become reality. But you will know in advance and be ready for any inevitable change coming at you.
Answer surveys
Oh, sure, surveys suck. However, they are the easiest way to share your opinion with the people making? laws and regulations or providing services and information that can affect you. Trust me, the people writing surveys know you hate them and work really hard to make them easy and short. Every time the government says, “The public said…” they’re basing those comments on survey answers. If 1,000 Albertans answer a survey that’s 0.2% of the population. Technically, if all the farmers answered a survey it could be two percent of the population. That would stir the pot eh? That’s 100,000 opinions to sift through in the legislature.
Ninety-eight percent of Canada’s population has become accustomed to ignoring agriculture needs, contributions and challenges. They eat every day and give zero thought to how that’s possible. This is why in recent years Farming Smarter joined Alberta Open Farm Days and the Lethbridge Whoop Up Days parade. You can volunteer to sit in our Ask a Farmer booth next August! You might be blown away by what you learn.